Will Donald Trump Be the Richest President in History?

"Part of the beauty of me is that I am very rich," Donald Trump told a reporter in 2011 when asked whether he would enter the 2012 presidential race.

For all the president-elect's bloviating, it's true—he is rich by any account, and will, according to one presidential historian, be the richest president in history when he takes the oath of office next week.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

"There would be nobody even close to him in comparison," says Douglas Brinkley, CNN's presidential historian and a professor of history at Rice University. He will, in fact, be the nation's first billionaire president. (The estimates on Trump's net worth run from Forbes' $3.7 billion to the mogul's own figure of "in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.")

The closest any other president comes to Trump's wealth is John F. Kennedy, whose father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., amassed a fortune through shrewd investing (he pulled out of the stock market just before the 1929 crash) and alleged bootlegging. His net worth was estimated at $500 million when he died in 1969. According to Time, JFK lived off a $10 million trust fund and stood to inherit even more. He donated his $100,000 presidential salary to charity.

Also up there was George Washington, whose real estate holdings would be worth $525 million in today's dollars, Time estimates.

Regardless of the figures, Brinkley says, Trump is unlikely to downplay his wealth once in office: "He likes to show off his access to the life of the rich and famous."

Aside from his personal style, Trump is also "pioneering the idea that having somebody that rich is good for America," Brinkley says. "The feeling used to be that someone with that much money was too removed from the lives of everyday people, but Trump has turned that on its head by saying he can't be bought by anybody."

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Town & Country participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.